My Monthly Chronicles: August 2026

In August life got really crazy with ending one job and starting another.  In between we had an overnight trip to the Goldfields region in Western Victoria and I was busy writing up some research on my great grandfather.   I had less time for getting out and about but we had a few amazing meals as well as our travels.  I hope to write more about the places we visited but in this post is a taster of a few places we stopped.  You can read more about my month at In My Kitchen August 2026 post.

I made a trip into the State Library which had a magnificent 19th Century domed reading room.  I am so often the tourist in these sort of places but I was there to find information on my great grandfather.  I looked up ancestry.com to find the date he moved to his home where my dad lived as a kid.  The website disappointed me by being even further from the date than me.  I then went to look at a book that mentioned my grandfather and tried to avoid all the rubbernecks taking photos. As I left I could not resist a photo or two.  See above doorway to the dome!

Collage workshop, Balam Balam Place
33 Saxon Street, Brunswick

I accompanied Sylvia to another collage workshop - Sylvia made two collages but I was pleased I managed to finish my collage in the workshop.  Everyone was very friendly and there was a lot of swapping magazines for scraps of pictures!

Big Elma: Rice Table Night
138 Nicholson Street, Coburg 

 

We went to the special Rice Table night at Big Elma's.  One of the owners has a grandmother who used to make this Indonesian style meal for her.  She held this night in tribute to her grandmother.  The tables were pushed together and it felt like a wonderful intimate community meal.  I spoke to a couple who said they had been to other rice table meals but they are not held often in the cafe.  You can see the chunks of rice on a plate, corn fritters and a tofu dish in the picture.  Great food and great ambience.  (I hope to find time to write more about this cafe soon.)

My office corridor

 

I am sneaking in a photo of one of the corridors at my job I have just left.  I really loved the archival photos of people at work that adorned the interior office walls.  These offices did not have a view out the window but they had these photos that gave them privacy but were transparent enough to let the light in.  (I was in an open plan office with a great view of the gum trees and occasional birds.)

Super 8 Cafe
305 Grattan Street, (Peter Mac) Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Parkville

I had a few work lunches from Super 8 in August.  They have such great salads.  My lunch above was Roquette and Pear Salad, Roasted Vegetable Salad, and a Beetroot Salad.  I was most impressed with the beetroot salad which had peach, strawberries, goats cheese and walnuts. 

Cyrill Callister Vegemite Museum
23 Neill St, Beaufort

One of the reasons we went to our our road trip was to visit the Vegemite museum.  Who could resist such a niche collection.  I've eaten vegemite since I can remember and I found the museum quite nostalgic - all those old vegemite jars, including the ones that we reused for drinking glasses.  I also loved some of the fascinating Vegemite art including school kids painting pictures of local buildings using just vegemite and water.

The American Hotel
90 Albert Street, Creswick

We stayed the night at The American Hotel in Creswick.  This town has a rich gold rush history.  I enjoyed seeing the splendid heritage buildings, including a museum in the former municipal offices.  It was fortuitous that we were there on a weekend that the farmers market was held.  We wanted to have dinner at the lovely Odessa in one of the oldest buildings in town but it was sold out because Ella Hooper was performing there but found a fine pizzeria.

Clunes, Victoria 

Clunes was the other place I really wanted to go.  It is the town where gold was first discovered in our state of Victoria in the 19th Century.  My great great grandfather come there from Wales as one of the miners and my great grandfather was born there.  The heritage main street was amazingly intact with some great vintage shops and a little further away is the bottle museum which we really enjoyed (far more than I expected).  We had a great lunch at Cafe 52.
 

Better Now Bakes 
130 Lygon Street, Brunswick East

On the same weekend of our trip out of town, Better Now Bakes  made the move from farmers market stalls to opening their own vegan bakery cafe in Brunswick East.  We love their bakes - all vegan - and were excited to visit soon after we returned home.  We heard that the opening weekend had been really busy but it was quieter on a week day.  It was so exciting to check out the set up and purchase potato and crispy chilli oil focaccia, pickle chive and dill scone, pecan pie, choc chip cookie to eat in.

And Bodega
340 St Georges Road, North Fitzroy

Another new vegan cafe is And Bodega in North Fitzroy much further north on St Georges Road then where we usually go.  We had an amazing meal served by an enthusiastic and friendly couple.  The price for 2 meals, 2 drinks and 2 baked items came to a very reasonable $59.  We loved the food, the drinks and the vibe of this unassuming cafe.

Sylvia had the Ollieflower toastie with a great name.  It was a crispy baked buffalo cauliflower, seasonal greens, housemade ranch on a 'Baked for Sofia' brioche, which was the only sandwich left after 1pm on a Saturday.  It wouldn't have been her first choice but she was pleasantly surprised by how amazing it was.  I had the Seasonal Bowl of quinoa, sautéed kale, tofu puffs drizzled with chilli sauce and a creamy ginger peanut dressing.  This was a great healthy bowl, a bit spicy for me with the chilli dressing but I loved the sate-style sauce.  

Sylvia was delighted with her birthday iced matcha latte that came with vegan cream and sprinkled.  It was not on the menu but she requested it because she had seen it online.  I had really good Natural Cola from the Ordinary Beverage Company.  These low calorie soft drinnks are getting better.  As well as a lovely flavour without the cloying sweetness of the big brands, I was interested that it was lo-cal without any artificial sweeteners in the ingredients.

We also had a fantastic lamington which came with a generous dollop of wonderful raspberry jam on top of the little cake with cream piped around the edges.  It looked very attractive.  I was interested how the vegan cream held its shape so well and asked about it.  The secret was to add custard to the cream.  Sounds simple but if you know vegan cream, you know it can be very soft so it seemed like alchemy to get it right.  And we had a superb Vegemite tomato & cheese escargot to take home.  It was such fantastic soft pastry that demonstrated their fine baking skills.  Apologies for all the superlatives but it was really good food and a great discovery in a month where I mostly visited known cafes.

Green Man's Arms
418 Lygon Street, Carlton 

It has been too long since I have got out to the cinema so I was really happy to see Colours of Time at the Nova with Heather.  Afterwards we went to Green Man's Arms, after the alarm at hearing they pub was to be sold.  It was reassuring to hear the pub is for sale but the lease of the Green Man's Arms will continue.  I was delighted that the special was a vegan Roast dinner of nut and lentil loaf, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, roast carrots, peas, yorkshire pudding, gravy and mint sauce.  It was a really lovely meal with the highlight perhaps being how light and fluffy they made the vegan Yorkie.  I was a bit unsure about the mint sauce but loved the generous amount of gravy over a lovely soft slice of nut and lentil roast.  The serving of peas as the green veg made me very happy because I love how my mum always serves them with a roast but it is less common in roast dinners I have when dining out.  I washed it down with a very pleasant Willie Smith's Tasmanian non-alcoholic cider and Heather enjoyed her Massaman Curry.

Sylvia's corner 

Some of the best (all-vegan) food Sylvia has eaten around Melbourne.  Unlike me, she visited quite a few new places with other people as well as a few faves.  She finds lots of the amazing meals we eat out but these are her favourite cafes in August. 

Top row: Beautiful Jim Key, Brunswick: Mushroom Congee, Masses Bagels, Fitzroy: Pickled Green Tomato Bagel, All Day Donuts, Brunswick: Blackberry Lime Glaze Donut.

Middle row: Smith & Deli, Collingwood: Gingerbread Latte, Gong De Lin, CBD, Sweet'n'Sour Vegan Pork, Smashed Cucumber, Marinated Tofu, Green Tea, Miss Moses, Brunswick: Vegan Chicken Burrito Bowl.

Bottom Row: Lui Boss, Brunswick: Japchae,  Tyler's Milkbar, Preston: Blueberry Crumble Cake, Eat Cannoli, Preston: Vegan Pistachio Cannoli and Cheesecake Cannoli.

In the News

Died: Johnny Young Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Yayoi Kusama

Power, distraction and the price of political failure: From the antisemitism Royal Commission, Trump’s political theatre and Victoria’s new Premier to ICAC, in New Politics, 3 August 2026

Petition to save Roy Grounds building amasses over 1,400 signatures, in Architecture,Au, 13 August 2026. (Melbourne University's plans to demolish the John Medley Building where I studied as an undergrad.)

Clacton byelection: Farage's pyrrhic victory convinces no-one by Ian Dunt on his Striking 13 Substack, 14 August 2026.  

Jason Arday, ex-Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism, found dead a week after resigning, NBC News, 15 August 2026. (aAso see reflections by Nature editorial and Toyin Falola: When a black scholar becomes a symbol)

Hundreds of the Albanian Diaspora Expected in Tirana for Day 76 of Flamingo Revolution Protest, Pressenza, 15 August 2026.

Labor is facing an insurgent One Nation. The path it takes on immigration will define its identity for years to come, Frank Bongiorno, The Guardian, 16 August

Long‑awaited gambling reform bill is an improvement, but does not go nearly far enough to reduce harm, The Conversation, 18 August 202

NSW judge says anti-Israel graffiti case went ‘haywire’ when vandalism was labelled antisemitic, The Guardian, 18 August 2026.

Australian football must reckon with its culture of entitlement (about the Sydney Swans sexual assault case), by Tarang Chawla in DeepCut, 22 August 2026. 

Political cartoonist Cathy Wilcox leaves the Sydney Morning Herald, “She has cocked her skeptical eyebrow and poked her inky nib at pretty much any subject you care to name.” MediaWeek, 23 August 2026.  (Her insightful cartoons will be missed!)

Head teacher evacuated 900 children minutes before Nepal floods hit school, BBC News, 30 August 2026.

Listening, Reading, Watching 

Listening to Set list by the Frames.  It is ages since I listened to this brilliant live album but with the recent death of frontman Glen Hansard.  When I listened to it often I would like to sing along loudly to the line "I want my life to make more sense" in the song Pavement tune.  It always resonated but years later I am trying to accept and embrace the chaos that is my life.  Mostly!

Another return to a different period in my life is watching tv series Malcolm in the Middle.  (Have not got to the new episodes yet.)  This tv family is complete chaos and hilarious.  I find that the mother is seen through a different lens now I am a mother than when I watched a couple of decades ago.

The Colours of Time that I saw at the Cinema Nova was a charming film set with a bit of bizarre comedy mostly set in 1890s Paris at a time when art and photography were changing rapidly.  It is the story of present day descendants discovering their ancestor who as a young woman left her rural life for the city in the late 19th Century to search for her mother and finds herself making friends with young artists.

Clue was another show we watched after a celebrity death - this time Tim Curry!  It is based on the game Cluedo (that is called Clue in the USA) and involves a classic situation of various characters in a stately manor house and a series of murders.  Tim Curry is hilarious as the manic butler and the film gets so silly at times but is a good laugh.  It was interesting to read that when it came out in cinemas, they had different endings so people seeing it in different cinemas saw different characters as the murderer!

Of course my daughter Sylvia bought Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French because of the name.  I had high expectations of the novel given Dawn French's hilarious comedy on tv but it was less rollicking than I expected.  All I could think was Oh Dear Dawn, as I made my way through quite a plodding text despite the good characters and an interesting plot twist.  Leading up to the twist, and after, I just found it so slow as it meandered through the reminiscing and updates of family and friends at the bedside of a woman in a coma reminiscing and updating her on their lives. 

Thanks to Nupur, I discovered The Bombing of Pan Am 103 on Netflix.  It was a fascinating series that started with Lockerbie in 1986 as the plane fell on the town after the bomb exploded.  It followed the advocacy and mourning by the victims families, and the forensic work of a team of investigators into how it happened.  It ended with the 2001 conviction of the Libyan terrorist, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi who was found guilty on 270 counts of murder.  It made sense of the story for me.  I had heard news reports about it over the years but never put it all together into a coherent narrative,